Poor Product and In-Store Experience

[cassiestars]

I have had great Sephora experiences before, but unfortunately, today's visit to the store in Lafayette, Indiana's JCPenney was not one of them. I entered the store on a mission to find a new brow product. After trying not one, but two different brow pencils (the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil Soft Brunetteand the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer 3-in-1 Triangle Tip Easy Precision Eyebrow Pencil Medium Brown) that broke quickly after purchasing, I was in need of a different product that hopefully produced similar results. Upon entering, one employee greeted me and asked if I needed help. I explained my situation and was immediately shown more retractable brow products that I was obviously not interested in wasting more money on. The employee also suggested that I was probably using the product too roughly and should be more careful with it... OK.

After spending almost an hour in the store trying different brow and other makeup products, I was finally ready to check out with an armful of things to buy (I might add that during this time, I was helped by a different employee who was nice and helpful.) Once I reached the cashier, I explained to a third employee that before purchasing these items, I would like to return the two broken brow pencils, which were in their original packaging. She seemed flustered and said "Well we don't carry that (the Hourglass pencil) here and you might have to exchange the other" (Anastasia). I told her that 1. The Hourglass pencil WAS purchased online from Sephora... so OKAY. and 2. that I was not interested in exchanging since the Anastasia pencil completely broke off after my second use. I wanted to purchase two new brow products along with the rest of my merchandise. She calls over a 4th employee and says "This lady doesn't have a receipt but wants to return this." I then stated that I was never asked if I had a receipt and that my previous purchase was linked to my Beauty Insider account. The fourth employee examined the pencil, and asked the the other cashier to pull up my Beauty Insider account. Once the purchase was located, and verified that it had indeed been less than 30 days since I purchased it, she then proceeded to tell her to keep scrolling down my purchase history so they could deem if I deserved to have this product returned?! Seriously?! Finally, they said they could offer me a return as a one-time courtesy... 

As someone who was about to spend a lot of money at Sephora, even after having two bad product experiences, I could not believe I was treated this way. I was made to feel like a thief and that I was trying to cheat the system or something. 3 out of 4 employees that I interacted with had attitudes, were unhelpful, and made me feel guilty and embarrassed for a product that was unsuitable to no fault of my own. It's safe to say that I will not return to the Lafayette, Indiana Sephora and I hope they prioritize their customer service for the sake of the Sephora brand and so that no one else has to feel the way that I did. 

[cassiestars]

I can't believe it's been two and a half months since this incident and after multiple follow-ups on my end and someone from Customer Service saying multiple times that they would contact me, I have yet to hear from anyone. It's absolutely astonishing that Sephora treats their loyal customers like this. Luckily I won't be one anymore.

[MaliBT]

I sent you a PM response just now. I am so sorry @cassiestars

[cassiestars]

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@cassiestars wrote:

I can't believe it's been two and a half months since this incident and after multiple follow-ups on my end and someone from Customer Service saying multiple times that they would contact me, I have yet to hear from anyone. It's absolutely astonishing that Sephora treats their loyal customers like this. Luckily I won't be one anymore.

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UPDATE: still have not been contacted

[MaliBT]

Hi @cassiestars

I am so sorry for this experience there. I will send you a private message to assist you! 

-Mali 

[cassiestars]

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@MaliBT wrote:

Hi @cassiestars

I am so sorry for this experience there. I will send you a private message to assist you! 

-Mali 

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-- no one ever contacted me past this point!

[MaliBT]

Oh no! @cassiestars I'll send you a private message. 

-Mali